Happy Tuesday everyone! Today’s project is another easy one – a great one for beginners! The project comes straight from the girls at Shanty-2-Chic. This wooden tray can be used in a variety of ways. In my apartment, I used it as a tray to hold magazines on my coffee table. Now I use it as a serving tray on the top shelf of my bar cart as shown below (sans corner hardware).

Now that you can see the versatility, let’s get started! I apologize for not having step-by-step pictures for these projects. I am working on a coffee table that will be posted soon and it will have clear pictures!

Step One: After making all of your cuts (Note: Home Depot and Lowe’s will make the cuts for you for free if you know the cuts you need ahead of time!) you are now ready for assembly. I started by using a small amount of glue to glue each of the long sides of the 18″ pieces together. You now have the bottom of your tray!

Step Two: Glue the 12.25″ pieces to either end of the bottom of the tray you just created. You now have the short sides of your tray in place. I then used a clamp to hold these steadily in place while gluing on the longer sides of the tray (however, if you have a handy-dandy helper they can hold them in place for you!)

Step Three: Glue the long sides of the tray to what has already been built and use finishing nails at the joints where the long sides meet the short sides of the tray. I used three nails at each joint. It should now look like a tray!

Step Four: You are ready to stain! I used Rust-Oleum stain in Dark Walnut (see link within materials list). The Shanty-2-Chic girls used another painting method which you can check out on their blog. Before you begin staining, make sure you shake that can very well! Once shaken, take your foam brush, dip it in the stain, and start painting it on the tray in the same direction as the wood grain. Make sure you do not over-saturate it and make sure to give it an even coat. After about 15-20 minutes, lightly wipe off any excess with an old rag. What does not get absorbed into the wood in that time frame will not end up soaking in and will leave a slightly sticky residue.

Step Five: The stain that I used dries in 1 hour! After that 1 hour was over, I sanded the edges to give it a slightly worn/distressed look.

Step Six: Add your hardware! I could not find a link to the handles that I used, but I found them in the hardware section at Lowe’s for about $2 a piece. I also added corner L brackets found in the hardware section for about $1 a piece.

Now go find a perfect place to use this! I have used mine as a magazine tray and a serving tray on my bar cart. How will you use yours?

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